Valparaíso Metro

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Valparaíso Metro
Locale	Gran Valparaíso
Transit type	Rapid transit
Began operation	2005
System length	43 km (27 mi)
Number of lines	1
Number of stations	20

Metro Valparaíso is the metro system serving the urban conglomeration of Gran Valparaíso, Chile , connecting the cities of Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, Quilpué, Villa Alemania and Limache. It is administered by the company Metro Regional de Valparaíso S.A., a subsidiary of the Chilean state-run train company Empresa de los Ferrocarriles del Estado. It was inaugurate on November 23, 2005 and began functioning the following day. Together with Concepción's Biotren and the much bigger Santiago Metro they are the only metro systems in Chile.

1 History
2 Architecture
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

Valparaíso had an interurban passenger train system since the 19th century, but it could not be called a metro due to infrequent train service and a number of other shortcomings. In 1999 construction began on the current system, tearing down the old stations and building new ones with a homologous design shared between them. In Viña del Mar, a tunnel more than 5 kilometers in length was constructed. The new train models arrived in Chile February 22, 2005 and the old system was decommissioned June 30 of the same year.

[edit] Architecture

Between the stations of Puerto and Recreo, the train runs at street level, bordering the coast, parallel to Errázuriz and España Avenues. Then the trains descend into a tunnel below Viana and Álvarez Avenues, and four stations in this sector are underground. The train exits the underground in the industrial sector of El Salto, and the train continues along a winding path to the interior of the metropolitan area.